


two halves

by jasminetea



Category: Mulan (1998)
Genre: F/M, Female Character of Color, Gender Issues, Gender Roles, Male Character of Color, POV Character of Color, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Sexism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 08:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15457140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminetea/pseuds/jasminetea
Summary: Some days it sends a small shock through him when Mulan passes him tea and not a sword, that while she still speaks her mind, there is something very different between them.“Some days I miss Ping.”





	two halves

**Author's Note:**

> Written awhile ago for this prompt: http://luchia13.tumblr.com/post/72015549532/freakingdork-knatalie-okay-but-please-please OP if you are on AO3, I'm happy to list this as a gift to you!
> 
> As often happens, I didn't get to the prompt, just the prologue. In this fic, Mulan and Shang are not married. Rather she is still caring for her father and Shang visits them often.

Mulan is both Ping and not Ping.  Some days it sends a small shock through him when Mulan passes him tea and not a sword, that while she still speaks her mind, there is something very _different_ between them.

One afternoon, he says, “Some days I miss Ping.”

Mulan stills, the plate of dumplings in her hands sending trails of steam upwards.  From beneath the table, Shang sees a slither of red, and a dumpling disappears. 

“Do you?” she replies.

“Yes."  Then realizing how terrible that sounded, he quickly adds, "You’re still you Mulan, the same man I admired for proving himself, and yet you’re so – ”

She graciously intervenes. “Different?”

“Yes.”

Taking her seat across from him, she pours him a cup of tea and uses both hands to give it to him.  She takes a sip from her own cup.

“I know what you mean.  It’s just – There are some things I can do as Ping that I can’t as Mulan, and some as Mulan I can’t as Ping.  Does that make sense?"  Seeing his furrowed brow, she continues.  "As Ping I could wear a sword at my side and had no obligation to be pleasant and kind.  But I couldn’t be soft without it being seen as weak.  I couldn’t say that a woman wants to be anything but quiet, even when she becomes a wife.”

“Couldn’t you be both at once?”

The red lizard that always accompanies Mulan skitters onto the table and sticks its tongue out at him.  Mulan quickly moves him back under the table.  “No,” she says, “that’s not the way things are." 

She places three dumplings onto his plate and slides it towards him.  "Eat,” she urges, and then goes to pour her father’s medicine.


End file.
